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Monday, February 13, 2017

Muhammad Hafez Saeed, the recently detained UN and US-designated
global terrorist and one of the world’s most wanted men, plans to register his
group, Jama’at-ud-Dawa (JuD), widely seen as a front for another proscribed
organization, Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), as a political party in Pakistan,
according to sources close to the militant.

The move comes days after Mr. Saeed and several other JuD leaders
were put under house arrest in a bid to fend off potential steps against
Pakistan, including inclusion on President Donald J. Trump’s list of countries
whose nationals are temporarily banned from travel to the United States, and punitive
steps by an Asian money laundering watchdog.

In a further effort to fend off pressure, Pakistan’s State
Bank, the country’s monetary authority said it had installed a long overdue
automated system to detect money laundering and terrorism financing.

The
announcement followed last year’s freezing by the bank of the accounts of 2,000
militants – a move described by both analysts and militants as ineffective
because those accounts were not where militants keep their assets.

Meanwhile, the State Department, in a hint of a possibly
tougher line towards Pakistan. refused in recent days to issue a visa to
Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, an Islamic scholar who is deputy chairman of
Pakistan’s Senate and a member of parliament for Jama’at-i-Islami (F), a
political party with close ties to the Taliban. Mr. Haideri was scheduled to
travel to New York to attend a meeting of the International Parliamentary Union
(IPU) at the headquarters of the United Nations.

In response, Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani announced that the
Pakistani parliamentary body would ban its members from travelling to the US
unless it received an explanation for the refusal. The US embassy in Islamabad
has so far refrained from explaining the decision.

JuD sources said its transition to a political party was in
part designed to stop cadres from joining the Islamic State (IS). They said
some 500 JuD activists had left the group to join more militant organizations,
including IS. They said the defections often occurred after the Pakistani
military launches operations against militants in areas like South Waziristan.

Writing in Dawn, Pakistani security analyst Muhammad Amir
Rana argued in favour of allowing JuD to transition into a political party. A
“major challenge for the state is how to neutralise groups that once served its
strategic purpose. The most practised way in a post-insurgency perspective is
to reintegrate them into mainstream society,” Mr. Rana wrote.

“The state can freeze their assets, shut down their charity
and organisational operations, put their leaderships under different schedules
of anti-terrorism laws, try their leaders in courts of law, and, in the worst
case, strip them of their nationality. But will this eliminate the problem?”
Mr. Rana added.

JuD’s application, which since Mr. Saeed’s arrest has
suggested that it would be operating under a new name, Tehreek-e-Azadi-e-Kashmir
(Kashmir Freedom Movement), a practice frequently adopted by militant groups
with government acquiescence, would however in the minds of Western officials
and analysts and some Pakistanis test the sincerity of a recent Pakistani
government crackdown on militants. JuD is believed to have close ties to the
Pakistani military and intelligence. A JuD leader said the group would register
with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) under its own name rather than
under a new one.

Mr. Saeed is believed to be among others responsible for the
2008 attacks on 12 targets in Mumbai, including the Taj Mahal Hotel, a train
station, a café and a Jewish centre. Some 164 people were killed and more than
300 wounded. The US government has a bounty of $10 million on Mr. Saeed for
information leading to his capture. Mr. Saeed, who was once a LeT leader, has
since disassociated himself from the group and denied any link between JuD and
LeT.

A JuD leader said that the group might wait with
registration with the ECP and let the current focus on the group fade away. “We
have decided to go in the politics. However, we’ll let the current phase evolve
after having been put on the government’s watch list before registering,” the
leader said.

JuD sources said the decision to go into politics and
register with the ECP was taken days before last month’s crackdown on the
group.

Some analysts believe that JuD would have to get a court
order to be allowed to register given that its designation by the United
Nations and the United States bans it from conducting business as normal,
including performing financial transactions. ECP registration requires
providing audited accounts.

JuD sources said the group has $19 million in assets that
were in accounts of local officials of the group in various districts in the
country.

JuD is believed to be the largest militant group in
Pakistan. General John Nicholson, the commander of US forces in Afghanistan,
told Congress last week that 20 of the 98 groups designated by the United
States as well as “three violent, extremist organizations” operate in
Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Gen. Johnson was speaking amid mounting pressure on the
Trump administration to adopt a tougher position towards Pakistani support of
militants from a chorus of voices that include the military, members of
Congress from both sides of the aisle, and influential Washington-based think
tanks.

“JuD is the biggest
non-state actor in Pakistan. It has the largest infrastructure in the country,”
Mr. Rana said in an interview. JuD is
believed to have 100 offices across Pakistan. A JuD leader said the group had
trained more than two million cadres and employs 12,000 people.

Azaz Syed is a prominent, award-winning Pakistani
investigative reporter for Geo News and The News. He is the author of the
acclaimed book, The Secrets of Pakistan's War On Al.Qaeda

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About Me

James M DorseyWelcome to The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer by James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Soccer in the Middle East and North Africa is played as much on as off the pitch. Stadiums are a symbol of the battle for political freedom; economic opportunity; ethnic, religious and national identity; and gender rights. Alongside the mosque, the stadium was until the Arab revolt erupted in late 2010 the only alternative public space for venting pent-up anger and frustration. It was the training ground in countries like Egypt and Tunisia where militant fans prepared for a day in which their organization and street battle experience would serve them in the showdown with autocratic rulers. Soccer has its own unique thrill – a high-stakes game of cat and mouse between militants and security forces and a struggle for a trophy grander than the FIFA World Cup: the future of a region. This blog explores the role of soccer at a time of transition from autocratic rule to a more open society. It also features James’s daily political comment on the region’s developments. Contact: incoherentblog@gmail.comView my complete profile